A Long Drive
by Phantom Typewriter
Summary: How could something that made so much sense before be so stupid in retrospect? Oneshot Nomixas. Rated for language


A/N: As usual, this is a random idea that just popped into my head one day and I thought decided to write it out. R&R people, and I'll try to update my main story.

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Roxas was cursed.

Yes, that's right, cursed. His was a very rare curse, and one that most people wouldn't mind having.

He was cursed to be too good at something he really didn't enjoy. He was the town's stereotypical skater-boy – the guy with more cool moves than most people you see on TV and perfect control. He never slipped, he never messed up; it came almost _too_ natural to him. Many people refused to believe he was as good as he seemed to be.

Of course, the entertainment industry didn't care whether or not he was really that good. As long as he _seemed_ that good, that was enough for them. That's how he managed to get offered a television and performance deal, being paid more money than you'd think could fit onto a single check. And yes, Roxas really _was_ that good.

And he hated it. He hated it more than anyone could imagine. Nobody who really wanted to make skateboarding their profession would have a library of fiction books as large as his, no matter how much they liked reading them. And then, of course, there were all of those 'learning to write fiction' books that he had picked up as a child and never got rid of.

Roxas wasn't a skater at all. He was a writer; yes, that's right, a writer. Everyone who saw him thought of him as a superstar in the making, but he would have been perfectly happy just writing books all his life. Of course, he couldn't tell anyone that. They would look at him bug-eyed, tell him he's crazy, then tell him he should focus on the things he was _good_ at.

Well, dammit, he _was_ good at it. Of course, only Namine had ever read any of his stories. She loved them all, just as he loved every picture she ever drew. They had a shared interest in each other's art, and they knew that neither of them was faking it. There was a big difference between liking someone's art and _pretending_ to like it, and they both definitely knew the difference.

Of course, there was more to it than that. Roxas didn't just like Namine's art, he liked _her_. There was nobody he would rather spend his time with; her smile, her voice, the way she always laughed at his jokes and how he knew she actually _enjoyed_ them, unlike everyone else… There were times he wished that he could simply forget about everyone else and just be with her.

Of course that never happened. Things never ended up like they were supposed to. Now Roxas was on the road, driving to Radiant Garden, the entertainment capital of this side of the planet, for his big business deal. All he had to do was impress the people who held his check in hand with a few of his moves, and he had a three-year television deal and far more money than he had ever laid hands on in his life. Yet, something was missing from it all...

Roxas' thoughts of Namine were interrupted by a phone call. _Another_ phone call. Roxas fervently hoped that it wasn't her again. He had avoided answering it the first time, as he had no wish to talk to her now. He had no idea what he could tell her to explain why he was leaving. Honestly, he didn't know himself. Nevertheless, he kept driving, grabbing the phone from the dashboard to see who was calling.

Roxas let out a slight sigh of relief. It was Axel, one of his best friends.

"Hey, what's up, Axe?" He tried to sound casual, hoping to avoid any questions concerning his departure.

"Hey, Rox, where'd you go? You left this morning without letting me know?" _Crap..._ Roxas thought to himself without letting his thoughts out into the phone.

"I had to leave early and I didn't have time to contact you. It's a long trip to Radiant Garden, you know. Besides, I'll be back pretty soon to see you guys after I get this contract thing settled." _Okay, good... keep yourself steady and under control. He'll understand; Axel's always been a little too laid back to get upset about anything._

"So you'll come back and visit between performing? I know there's a bunch of people here who'll probably miss seeing you around all the time." Axel sounded as casual as ever. Nothing really seemed to be wrong... he was just calling to check up on Roxas because he left without saying goodbye to anyone.

"Sure. Twilight Town _is_ my home. I'll be back to see you guys whenever I can. I might be a bit busy early on, but once I get used to the pace of things, I should be able to get back pretty often."

"That's cool." Axel's voice trailed off. "There's just one other thing I wanted to ask you about..."

Something in the back of Roxas' mind was yelling at him to come up with some excuse to cut the conversation short and not let Axel ask the question, but he was too focused on trying to act normal to acknowledge that voice. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Rox..." Axel's voice trailed off again and the phone went silent for several seconds. For a moment, Roxas thought he had lost the signal, as was about to check if Axel was still on the line, but before he could, Axel suddenly cut back in with a voice so loud it made Roxas drop his cell phone. "**_WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING!_**"

Roxas had to pull his car over to the side of the road and search under his seat for several seconds before he finally found his phone again. His ear was ringing slightly from the noise, but that couldn't be helped and he wasn't about to leave Axel waiting on the line to stew in his own anger. Axel rarely ever got angry, but when he did, he got _angry_, and nobody wanted to mess with him, including Seifer.

"Wha- I- wait, wait... what- what are you talking about, Axe?" Roxas sputtered, trying to keep himself under control, but found that to be nearly impossible with Axel shouting at him, even if it was over the phone.

"_What are you talking about, Axe? What are you talking about, Axe?_" He mocked over the phone, "You know **DAMN** well what I'm talking about!" He shouted again, though, thankfully, not nearly as loud as before.

"Namine called me a few minutes ago. She was asking about where you'd gone to, since she couldn't get a hold of you. Now, you know... Sora told me that you skipped town to get to your big _business deal,_" Axel stated in a tone filled with anger and more than a little spite. "And I just figured you were rushed, ya know? Let the important people and the worry-warts know where you've disappeared to, and they can pass the news around, but, for _some_ friggin' reason, Namine had _no_ idea where you disappeared to. Seems a bit odd from my end..."

"Wait, Axe, I can-" Roxas tried to reply but was quickly cut off again by Axel.

"_Hey, Axel, do you know where Roxas is? I can't get a hold of him._" Axel began to recite his earlier conversation with a poor imitation of Namine's voice, but the point was still clear enough to Roxas. "What, you didn't hear? _Hear what? What's going on?_ Oh, hmm... I thought you knew. There were some big city people here trying to get Rox to accept some business deal. He's been real busy lately, and his schedule today's been pretty much booked with meetings and stuff. _Oh, okay. There were some things I wanted to talk to him about, but they can wait until tomorrow._"

Roxas listened to his friend recite his conversation with Namine and felt his stomach turn. Namine thought he was still in town. He hadn't told her _anything_, and nobody else bothered to inform her, maybe because they didn't want to break her heart; or rather, they didn't want to _see_ her heart break. Roxas was the only one who had done anything to hurt her.

"Yeah, sure, I'll tell ya what... I'll call Rox and let him know you wanted to talk to him. Maybe he can call you back and you two can meet up sometime tonight and do your 'thing.' _Very funny, Axel. But thanks anyway; if you could let him know, I'd really appreciate it. _No problem, angel; I mean, everyone knows Rox _loves_ being around you, so I'm sure he won't mind. _Okay, stop, now that's just getting annoying._ Okay, fine. I better call him now before he books his plans all the way until midnight. See ya later, angel! _Bye, Axel._"

Roxas listened to the rest of Axel's monologue conversation, feeling his stomach turning a little harder with each second, imagining how the words would sound out of Namine's lips; imagining the look on her face as she spoke, and the look she would have when she learned-

"Now, I don't know about you, but any man who skips town without telling his girl about it seems like an **_ass_** to me, especially if he tells everyone **except** her about it, you know what I mean? I mean, not that any of my _respectable_ friends would ever pull shit like that. I'm just talking _hypothetically_." Axel's voice was still filled with anger, and his sarcasm only seemed to intensify it.

Roxas said nothing for several long seconds as he tried to steady his sense of growing nausea. "Axel," Roxas swallowed hard, trying to steady his voice before speaking. "Listen..."

"_Hypothetically_. You know, like something that isn't real and probably couldn't ever _really_ happen?" Axel's voice ground into Roxas' mind, completely destroying what little confidence and certainty he had in his own actions. "H-Y-P-O-"

"I-" Roxas chocked on his own words for a moment, "I **got** it, Axel. I... I got it... **memorized**." Roxas poured his focus into trying to keep himself under control while simultaneously trying to keep himself from throwing up from thoughts of the pain he was going to cause Namine when she learned...

"Oh... really? Alright then, Rox. Have _fun _on your _trip_ then." He replied a final time, his voice still thick with his cold sarcasm. A heavy click signaled that Axel had hung up on him, ending the conversation abruptly, and on a very painful note for Roxas, for a number of reasons.

Roxas leaned his head down onto the steering wheel for a few seconds, trying to make sense of everything that had happened over the past few days. Why was he leaving? Why was he going along with a deal he really didn't even _want_? What was he thinking?

Roxas pulled his head up from the wheel, turning his car back onto the road and quickly accelerating back to his driving speed. It didn't matter. He didn't have any time to think about it. He had a business deal to take care of. People grow up, people move apart... things like that happen, and just because it was happening now didn't mean he could do anything about it or that he really had to stop it. It was... natural.

That's what he told himself, and for a few minutes it worked. The long drive was just getting started, though, and he knew he couldn't simply dismiss his thoughts forever. They drifted back to his mind, and he forcibly shook them out again. Once again they returned, and once again he forcibly ignored them, absolutely determined not to think about that now.

Finally, they drifted back a third time. They were subtle this time, though... not quite as unpleasant as before.

Sure, Namine would be unhappy about it, but she'd get over it. Times change, people change... Namine would find somebody else, and she'd live a happy life. That's just the way things were...

Namine would... find someone else, and so would Roxas.

But Roxas didn't _want_ anybody else, and Namine... the thought that somebody else would have her... somebody else would _hold_ her, somebody else would _kiss_ her, somebody _else_ would support her in ways Roxas never could... somebody _else_ would marry her and start a family with her and live 'happily-ever-after' with her and that she would someday completely _forget_ about Roxas and the time they shared... together...

What... what **THE HELL** _WAS_ HE THINKING?

Roxas was lucky, for once. The ground between the highway roads was unpaved and there was no wall present, which meant he didn't crash straight into it when he spun his car around in a complete u-turn and started driving back, pushing the speed limit as much as he could without getting arrested. He quickly grabbed his cell-phone and made a call. Not Namine, not Axel, not Sora... no, he was going to call his agent. His _damn_ agent who convinced him to go through with this stupid idea and leave the one place in the world he considered home.

No, not Twilight Town. He could walk away from there in an instant. His _true_ home was right beside Namine, and he was a fool for not realizing it sooner.

"Yeah, hi, this is Roxas." He quickly replied to the man's overly-enthusiastic greeting.

"Oh, hey, Roxas! Good to hear from you again! What's up? Got a question about the contract or something?" Ohhh, yes... he was _way_ too happy.

"No, not exactly. I just called to tell you you're fired and the contract is off, period." Roxas immediately hung up the phone before the man could reply. A few minutes later the man called back, but Roxas ignored it completely. Several more calls came, but Roxas didn't bother to answer any of them. He simply deleted the messages and erased the man's phone number from his list. He knew he would be better off forgetting about him completely.

Now the only hard part was lasting the rest of the trip without being able to see Namine... Though he was tempted to call her and explain what was happening, he knew he would only feel like a total idiot. He had to see her in person. He had to tell her how he really felt. He had to... _hold_ her, and know that she couldn't simply hang up on him for the jerk he was or walk away and leave him hanging... as much as he deserved those things and more.

-----

Hey, guys, I think that was Roxas driving by!

**You nuts? He left town this morning and headed to Radiant Garden. He'd be miles from here by now.**

Yeah, I know, but...

_Um... I think that really was Roxas, and... he was driving REALLY fast..._

**Hmm... maybe we should call Axel and let him know?**

Yeah, we probably better call Sora, too.

_Oh, no, we can tell him in person. He's hanging out right over there at the arcade with Kairi and Riku._

-----

Roxas knew exactly where he was going and exactly how he was going to get there. The beach; Namine was always at the beach, sketching her art. Roxas took the quickest path to the shore, cutting through the Disciplinary Committee's territory in the process, which he knew Seifer would later have his head for, but he didn't bother thinking about that now. It really wasn't all _that_ important anyway. He had dealt with Seifer plenty of times before.

When Roxas finally arrived, he saw Namine standing in the distance, submerged in the water halfway up to her knees. She always loved the water and the waves. The sun slowly approaching the horizon. It wasn't yet to sunset, but it was getting close, and the reflection of Namine's silhouette on the water, wearing the same, simple white dress that Roxas had always thought made her look gorgeous, spread out behind her in both directions, forming what looked like wings in the water.

Roxas had always thought she looked like an angel. Now the context seemed more literal, though it meant nothing to Roxas either way. Within a few seconds, he had removed his shoes and socks, tossing them in the back seat along with his over-shirt and jeans. He jumped out of the car, slamming the door behind him and running town toward the water where Namine was, wearing the simply tan shorts and t-shirt that Namine had always said looked more like him than any of the 'cool' attire that most people associated with the 'skater boy Roxas.'

Namine apparently heard him slam the door, as she turned around to face him as he ran across the beach.

"Roxas!" She smiled as she saw him approach. A smile that secretly made Roxas queasy, reminding him of everything Axel has said to him. He stopped in the water in front of her, soaked halfway up to his knees just like she was. "How did your meetings go?" She asked in her ever-loving tone which did nothing to help the feeling in Roxas' stomach.

"They... er, they went... ugh..." Roxas lowered his head and slapped his hand against his forehead, forcibly calling back all of his focus. When he raised it again to face Namine, she had a slightly confused expression. Slightly confused and... a little worried.

"There... there never were any meetings today, Namine." He forced the words out of his mouth, hating himself for the truth in each one.

"But when I called, Axel told me-"

"Axel was covering for me, Namine. I was out of town – I was driving... to Radiant Garden."

Namine's expression became less worried and more confused with each word. "Radiant Garden? Why?"

"The... business deal, it- I was supposed to go to Radiant Garden and sign a contract for a... television deal." Roxas spat the words out, feeling sick that he would ever agree to it in the first place.

"Oh..." Namine stood and stared and him for a moment, appearing ever more confused by his statements. "What are you still doing here, then?"

"I... it- they... It was going to be three years, Namine. Three years on TV doing stupid tricks with that dumb skateboard that I didn't even want to do while traveling around half the world, never getting back here to see the people that matter most to me, all for some stupid check for a bunch of money I don't even need because people say it's what I'm good at even though I hate it!" His words gradually built up from normal speech to a shout, though Namine stood completely un-phased by his sudden outburst.

She watched him for what felt like the longest moment of his life. Her eyes held a certain curiosity to them, for reasons Roxas already understood.

"I... I wasn't going to see you again for a long time and I didn't want to say goodbye..." He muttered in a tone that seemed barely audible, even to himself. "I didn't want to see your face again and tell you that I was leaving for something so stupid... I didn't want to go but I felt like I had to and- and..." Roxas shook his head, tears starting to well up in his eyes from his frustration with himself and everything he did. How could something that made so much sense before be so stupid in retrospect?

"I didn't want to face you, Namine... I was afraid to say no and I didn't know what else to do, so I... I just left without telling you, but-"

Roxas brought his head up to Namine's, facing her again. He didn't see anger in her eyes, he didn't see frustration for the stupidity of his actions, he saw... a smile. She was smiling? Why was she-

Roxas turned his face away and back down toward the water, too ashamed to face her. He took a long, deep breath to steady himself before continuing.

"When Axel called me – told me you were wondering where I was... When I knew nobody had told you, I realized how stupid I was. There was no excuse for just walking away and I was the only one who couldn't see it. So I turned around... I called off everything, turned around and came back here so I could see you again. I had to..." His voice was slowly trailing off, becoming less audible to both himself and Namine.

Namine reached forward with one hand, placing it under his chin and gently raising his head so that he came face-to-face with hers. When he at last was looking deep into the cerulean blue of the girl's eyes, more beautiful than the sky and the ocean around her, he couldn't pull himself away from them. For the first time, he was awestruck by her beauty. He had always thought she was beautiful before, but now... he didn't have words to describe how he felt.

"Namine..." He muttered the only word that could describe the beauty that stood before him. Nothing else could compare to that name in his mind or his heart. _Her_. She _was_ his heart – she was everything to him and more, and now that he realized it... he couldn't find the words to tell her. "I... I had to say what I- but I- the words... I don't have the words to say it anymore..."

"What is your heart saying?" She asked in the most gentle, most beautiful tone he had ever heard form anyone, including her.

"I..." Roxas muttered as a stiff breeze blew past them both, blowing several strands of hair across Namine's face. She raised her hand to brush them aside, but as she did, Roxas reached up, taking her hand in his, gently holding it as he pulled the stray hair away from her face. As he touched her, her expression changed. She was suddenly frozen in place, her eyes showing a mix of anticipation and surprise. For reasons he didn't understand, he leaned forward bringing his face close enough to hers that he could no longer see her entire face – only her eyes, which were even more beautiful than they had been moments before.

Namine let out a long, shaky breath that was warm against Roxas' face. He closed his eyes slightly to savor the moment and when it over, they reopened, suddenly more focused than they had ever been before. Roxas leaned closer still, moving his hand around the side of her neck, causing her to inhale sharply. His lips pressed against hers in the most delicate way as they both exhaled, long and soft into each other. For the moment that they held together, it was perfect bliss. To Roxas, it felt as if she were so soft and delicate that she were made out of air itself.

When they drew away from each other, both of their eyes reflected the understanding that they shared and suddenly, Roxas perfectly understood everything he had come to say. "Namine..." He whispered and Namine closed her eyes as he had before to savor the feeling of his breath on her face. "...I love you." When her eyes reopened, she was smiling. First her smile almost seemed to be one of disbelief, but it soon grew to a reflection of the perfect happiness she felt in that moment.

"I love you too, Roxas..." She whispered back and, before she had time to even think, Roxas kissed her again, suddenly and deeply, his hand around her neck pulling him into her as hard as he could manage without hurting her. Her arms quickly wrapped around her neck and she kissed him back, pulling on him as hard as she could as his free hand wrapped around her waist to hold her close to him.

Roxas managed to hold the embrace for several seconds, but Namine's weight combined with the force of the moving waves eventually got the best of his legs and sent them both toppling over into the water. They both pulled themselves up and out of water, breaking their kiss just as they surfaced. They were completely soaked to the skin now, and looking more than a little silly sitting down on top of each other in knee-deep water instead of on the edge of the beach.

"Hey, Rox!" A familiar voice shouted across the beach. Axel, with Sora, Kairi, Riku, and all of Hayner's gang following at a distance behind him. Roxas raised an arm up in greeting but said nothing as Namine made an effort to climb off of him as quickly as possible without appearing extremely awkward.

"How was your _trip_?" He asked with a smirk as he reached the edge of the water. Roxas glanced to Namine and they both laughed a bit as the rest of the group approached from behind Axel.

"It was... fun, Axe." He replied, honestly not knowing if Axel was referring to the drive or landing in the water. "It was really fun." He repeated, and both he and Namine laughed again, ignoring the confusion of the rest of the group.

-

A/N: This was just something that landed in my mind... like a meteorite crashing into my brain or something. I thought it was good, so I decided to write it out. Once again, R&R. I'll try to get my _real_ story updated soon, if anybody cares.


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